Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Yeah, that happens way too often for a fun drinking game here. Still, we have a bonus issue though: five issues of the first Secret Six mini-series from 2006, plus the first issue of their 2008 regular series! Well, that's six issues, I guess. Written by Gail Simone, art by Brad Walker and Nicola Scott, inks by Jimmy Palmiotti and Doug Hazlewood.

Darn, I missed the Doom Patrol's appearance, although from the description there, they got jobbed out by the Mad Hatter, who did a short run with the Six. The Hatter was even nuttier than usual here, but had finally started to come around to the team as a burgeoning, completely dysfunctional family; which makes it sad-slash-hilarious when Ragdoll gives him the boot.
Much of this limited revolves around Scandal Savage, her relationship with former Female Fury Knockout, and her father's attempts to coerce her into giving him a grandchild. The latter would be bad enough in any case, but made far worse since her dad was immortal caveman and murder enthusiast Vandal Savage; there's every possibility he wanted a grandkid to eat or harvest its organs or something. And despite being unarguably the team's toughest member (physically) Knockout would get taken out...actually, that would happen multiple times over the title's run! She gets burned down by mercenary Pistolera in #2, but recovers from horrific burns. (Knockout remains, well, a knockout, even after that; thanks to Darkseid's gift of genetic engineering "to stay presentable," I don't think Darkseid cared if guy warriors were burnt lumps of scar tissue or even survived...) Later, on her way for a rematch with Big Barda, Knockout would get got again in what looks like an otherwise fun issue of Birds of Prey (#109) as part of the Death of the New Gods mini. Surprisingly, I think she would still be one of the few New Gods to return after that before the New 52, so good for her.
Still, with Knockout out, the Secret Six would start their regular series down to four members! (Actually, take that back: five. Bane is here, more towards the end of the issue.) Not that I think they referred to themselves by that name, anyway. In the mini-series, Deadshot has a visit with his daughter that predictably goes south; while I didn't feel Catman had as much to do. (Well, there was some stuff with Cheshire...) At the start of the regular series though, after what appears to be a brutal encounter with poachers in Africa, Catman is having a bit of a moral dilemma, which his pal Deadshot blithely pushes through: while they aren't great guys, he figures 90% of the bad stuff they do happens to other bad guys, so whatevs. He also has a disturbing insight to Catman's relationship with the Huntress that I hope is wrong...
Simone has a few plates going from the start: a new crime lord is introduced, from a box; Scandal tries to push through her grief over Knockout, the guys try to set her up with a Knockout-dressed stripper, and the team's latest mission to break out Tarantula seems to be so ill-advised Huntress calls Catman up to warn him. We checked out the last issue several years back, but I still have a lot of issues to fill in here.